Seems as if any time a notable iOS developer makes the leap to the Mac, it's worthy of headlines -- and that's certainly true with the alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac introduced today. If you've already sworn your allegiance to Tweetbot on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, it's pretty much of a no-brainer. So let's not waste any time here, you'll want to read all about it so you can get to downloading that much quicker on this Wednesday, July 11, 2012.

Tweetbot for Mac Public Alpha Now Available

Despite Tapbots' earlier objections to porting its popular Twitter client from iOS to Mac, the developer surprised many today by releasing an alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac, available today as a free download for anyone willing to give it a test drive. "Developing for the Mac is no easy task, especially a full-featured Twitter client," the company notes in its blog. "However, we’ve gotten to a point where while not complete, it is useable. We’ve decided to release it as a public alpha to a) motivate us to finish faster, and b) get feedback to help us build the best Mac incarnation of Tweetbot we can make." It's important to note that this is just a preview of what's to come -- in addition to creepy, crawly bugs being present, a number of features like multiple windows and iCloud sync are also still absent. The alpha is free for now, but when version 1.0 hits the Mac App Store, you'll have to pony up an as-yet unannounced amount. Also, the release version will be the first app we've heard of to be OS X Mountain Lion exclusive, although the alpha runs just fine on OS X Lion today.

Apple Issues Statement on EPEAT Withdrawal

The Loop managed to wrangle a response out of Apple about its recent decision to withdraw from EPEAT, a voluntary list of green electronics. The move caused the city of San Francisco to lash out against Apple, denying city employees from buying Cupertino's computers with city dough. “Apple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government, Energy Star 5.2,” explains Apple representative Kristin Huguet. “We also lead the industry by reporting each product’s greenhouse gas emissions on our website, and Apple products are superior in other important environmental areas not measured by EPEAT, such as removal of toxic materials.” So, seems like much ado about nothing, especially considering the Apple systems in question would still qualify for gold status by EPEAT's own standards.

Parallels Desktop 7 Updated for MacBook Pro with Retina Display

If you've been trying in vain to run Windows 8 Release Preview on that swanky new MacBook Pro with Retina Display (or any other MacBook running Ivy Bridge processors), you've no doubt hit a brick wall. That harsh mellow gets smoother today with the arrival of Parallels Desktop 7 Build 15104, which not only adds Windows 8 support on the latest MacBooks, but also adds enhanced Retina Display support. And that's not all: Users can now use USB 3.0 devices inside virtual machines, not to mention run Fedora 17 Linux. Last but not least, Build 15104 has been green lit for installation on OS X Mountain Lion, which should be coming 'round the mountain any day now. To grab the latest version, open your existing Parallels install and check for updates. Then do a happy dance -- you deserve it!

More Cast Announced for Indie Steve Jobs Biopic

The independent feature film based on the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs appears to be ramping up nicely, with The Hollywood Reporter noting a few more casting choices to round out the project. Directed by Joshua Michael Stern from a screenplay by Matt Whiteley, the film has added Kevin Dunn as Apple chairman Gil Amelio (better known as the guy who brought Jobs back to the company he helped create), as well as Law & Order veteran J.K. Simmons, who will play venture capitalist and Apple investors Arthur Rock. Of course, this isn't the project everyone is really waiting for -- that being the adaptation of Walter Isaacson's official bio on Jobs, which Sony has hired Aaron Sorkin to write. But hey, it's something to tide over those of us who have tired of repeated viewings of The Pirates of Silicon Valley...

Microsoft Releases Office for Mac 2011 14.2.3 Update

While Steve Ballmer is busy running his mouth about stomping out Apple this week, Microsoft's Mac team has been busy preparing a new update to Office for Mac 2011, which is now available in the form of version 14.2.3. In what seems to be a common refrain for many of Microsoft's Office updates, the release notes claim "This update fixes critical issues and also helps to improve security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code." Okay, fair enough. The 110.1MB download (which can also be installed via Microsoft AutoUpdater) applies to pretty much every 2011-era version of Microsoft Office for Mac and its various and sundry parts, so we'd be gettin' with the downloading while the gettin' is good, y'all.